ABU DHABI — Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairperson of the Family Welfare Foundation, received a delgation of diplomats’ wives from Dubai and the Northern Emirates here yesterday. They had come to extend Eid greetings to Shaikha Fatima.

By Kate Gaier 6:45 pm January 1, 2007 An arrest is made in a year old murder case in Cairo... but the motive is still anyone's guess. Neighbors say Pearl Johnson was a kind-hearted woman. Even though she was disabled, she would help anyone.

Al-Qaida's number two man is aiming some New Year's criticism at the leaders of Egypt and the Palestinians. But Ayman al-Zawahri's statement hasn't been authenticated.

Panaji, Jan 1 Muslim brethren celebrated Bakr-Id with ritualistic fervour in Goa. Friends and relatives besides people from other faiths wished the members of Muslim community Eid Mubarak on the auspicious occasion. Prayers were offered at mosques throughout Goa during the day.

Israeli officials on Monday denied claims that they were close to a deal that would secure the release of a captured soldier held by Palestinian militants, citing excessive demands by the Islamic Hamas.

Society

Egypt is the second most populous country in Africa, at about 77,500,000 people. Nearly all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Alexandria and Cairo) and in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 94% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity (primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination). Aside from religion, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages.

Overall, the Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people. Since ancient times, particularly before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, North African and Eastern Mediterranean influences have come to predominate in the north, while the people in the south are also related to Nubians and Ethiopians. The bulk of modern Egyptian society maintains a homogeneous genetic tie to ancient Egyptian society which has always been rural and quite populous compared to neighboring countries. The Egyptian people have spoken only languages from the Afro-Asiatic family throughout their history starting with Old Egyptian to modern Egyptian Arabic.

The Arabization of Egypt was a cultural process that began with the introduction of Islam and the Arabic language following the Arab Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD. In the centuries to follow, a social hierarchy was created whereby Egyptians who converted to Islam acquired the status of mawali or "clients" to the ruling Arab elite, while those who remained Christian, the Copts, became dhimmis. The privilege enjoyed by the Arab minority continued in a modified form into the modern period in the countryside, where remnants of Bedouin Arab tribes lived alongside Egyptian farmers. One author describes the social demographics of rural Upper Egypt as follows:

Upper Egypt comprises the country's eight southernmost governorates. ... the region's history is one of isolated removal from the center of national life. The local relationships resulting from this centuries-old condition gave Upper Egypt an identity of its own within the modern Egyptian state. Alongside the even more ancient presence of Copts, tribal groupings dating from the Arab conquest combined to form a hierarchical order that placed two [minority] groups, the ashraf and the arab, in dominating positions. These were followed by lesser tribes, with the [Egyptian] fellah at the bottom of the social scale(28) [...] Religion was central to the development of Upper Egyptian society. The ashraf claimed direct descent from the Prophet, while the arabs traced their lineage to a group of tribes from Arabia. On the other hand, the status of the fellahin rested on the belief that they descended from Egypt's pre-Islamic community and had converted to Islam, a history that placed them inescapably beneath both the ashraf and arabs. [...] In Muslim as well as Christian communities, and particularly at the lower socio-economic levels, religious practices are strongly imbued with non-orthodox folk elements, some of pharaonic origin. [Source]

Fellah means "tiller", "farmer" or "peasant" in English, and it is the Arabic appellation by which the indigenous rural peoples of the lands conquered by Arabs came to be known. The fellahin live a humble, earthy life and today they comprise 60 percent of the total Egyptian population. The percentage was much higher in the early 20th century, before the large influx of fellahin into urban towns and cities. In 1927, anthropologist Winifred Blackman, author of The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, conducted ethnographic research on the life of Upper Egyptian farmers and concluded that there were observable continuities between the cultural and religious beliefs and practices of the fellahin and those of ancient Egyptians.

Ethnic minorities in Egypt include the small number of Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern and western deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, as well as the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile in the southernmost part of Egypt and who are estimated to be about 0.8% of the population. Egypt also hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers, made up mostly of 70,000 Palestinian refugees and 20,000 Sudanese refugees. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in Egypt and those who visit on religious occasions. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites also remain.

Religion

According to the constitution, any new legislation must implicitly agree with Islamic (Arabic: الإسلام) laws. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, covering about 94% of the population, most belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. Christians represent about 6% of the population, primarily the Coptic denomination, though other Christian groups are present, including Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox, in Alexandria and Cairo, whose adherents are mainly descendants of Italian, Greek, and Armenian immigrants.

There are also some few, small Jewish communities, numbered as few as three hundred Egyptians.

There are also many who consider themselves as atheist or agnostic, although their numbers can not be identified.

The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues.

Egypt also hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University is the oldest Islamic institution for higher studies (founded around 970 CE), with its corresponding mosque Al-Azhar. A strong Christian heritage can be found in Egypt, as it is the home of the Coptic Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria, which has a following of approximately fifty million Christians worldwide.